Aranjuez
by Alithea
Summary: Shoujo-ai content. Juri recieves a mysterious call in the middle of the night. Is it from End of the World or is someone trying to trick her? And why is Utena Tenjou wandering around the campus so late at night?


**Title: Aranjuez  
****Rating: PG-13  
****Author's: Note: In keeping with this sites guidelines I have removed the song lyrics that previously broke up the scenes of this chapter. If you would like to read this chapter with the song lyrics in it you may do so at media miner dot org . Thank you!  
Shoujo-ai Content  
****The characters of Utena do not belong in any way to me. I am just borrowing.**

The sound of the phone was a shrill awakening from the half sleep she had just managed to glide into. There was a beat, a moment encompassing her, which warned she should just ignore the ringing device and attempt once more that which eluded her. However, the moment passed and as per her normal character, her drive to know, she picked up the receiver and held it to her ear.

"Yes" she stated, scratchy irritation in her tone, breath escaping in a huff from her lips as she listened. And then it was drawn in again, something of a gasp, as the words from the other line collected in her ears moving down her throat to her chest where her heart wanted to stop, but her mind kept it from doing so. She cleared her throat and bit back her fear, diving into the cool and icy pool of stoicism she was so well known for. The depth of her steely hazel eyes the only clue to the upset that the voice on the other line was causing. Her shoulders rolled back into their usual crisp and stiff form as she sat up, hand gripping the receiver almost in anger.

"Why do I dare believe you" she asked solidly, no hint of interest or disinterest anywhere in her voice. All that lingered in her tone was the question and the expectation of an answer.

There was a beat of steady silence on the other end and then the voice, the intruder of her one fleeting chance at sleep, replied. His voice was powerful, but calm...Deep and longing the way a prince's would be expected to sound. Familiar in its own way as it lingered in her ear. It was clearly not the voice of deception she thought she knew; it was ever so slightly different and so simple a reply"For your heart's desire, Miss Arisugawa and the proof there in."

Cryptic, yes, there was no doubt of that. The line went dead and she sat in the darkness of her room listening to the sound of the disconnected phone. And then by the power of her curiosity and the duty that was inherent in the ring she wore so easily on her left hand she put the receiver down and went to dress herself.

She was a duelist after all. The rules were simply laid. If a deep voice on the phone instructed her to go to the rooftop of the old Ohtori library then she would do so. She would play the game to get what she wanted…and she wanted.

Her hand slid over the golden pendant that rested at her chest. Fingers barely pressing into the rose design as she whispered a name and then a curse.

The air was warm, resonant of the end of a long and fruitful summer, the kind of easy heat and breeze that made up the background for a wistful romance. Juri Arisugawa stepped to the edge of the roof and scoffed at the perfect scenery. All that faultless idealism, those lovely dreams laid out by so many on nights as that. She hated it. Truly she thought it the most useless thing to allow one's self to slide into. Her eyes shut tight as a voice in the far reaches of her heart, buried beneath the ash of all she longed for, prodded her soul and reminded her"You hate that which you desire more than anything else."

Eyes open once more she surveyed the view beneath her. The campus deep in its nighttime slumber and it seemed to breathe, as a stray breeze would move by her. An auburn eyebrow arched, as she wondered why she had never been at the top of the library's roof before, aside from the planetarium tower she doubted there was a better spot to look down on all of Ohtori and observe.

Her gaze reflexively moved to the places she was most familiar with. To the fencing hall, which looked distant and tomb like, then to the balcony where the student council meetings were held, to the rose garden where she did not like to linger, and then the to mocking dueling arena the place of her defeat. She looked at those things as she waited and after ten minutes of waiting she let her eyes drift to a part of the campus she would never go to again. The spot itself was well hidden by bunches of trees, and even so far away, she wanted to say she could hear the river rushing passed it.

Juri shook herself from the memories. Those stinging thorns that gripped her, held her still, a vice like no other and she was unaware of how to escape. She wanted to forget everything that ever made her heart ache, to emerge as an amnesiac and look at the world in a new light. If she could see things better and brighter, if she could prove miracles false, if she could… If she could… and she wasn't sure what it would mean if she could have all that she wanted.

Deep down she feared getting more than anything else, for getting meant being allowed to drop her walls of perfection and distantly cool appearance. Getting meant she didn't have to be that lovely panther everyone feared. And it frightened her, the thought of actually getting, of breaking through her armor of cynicism, because she did not know who she was any longer if she could not be Juri Arisugawa the icy angel of perfected stoicism and cool cat like grace.

She brushed her hand through untamed light auburn locks and sneered in contempt at the view as she turned to make her way back to her dorm. Game or not she had waited long enough for whatever was supposed to come to her. She was annoyed by the sheer waste of her time. And as she turned on her heels and took a step, cool hazel eyes pierced through the dark and caught the form of an envelope mere inches from where she stood.

An eyebrow quirked and then relaxed. She picked the envelope up causally, unhurried, never dropping her outward show. Opened it and read the contents, simple as they were:

_Miss Arisugawa,  
So good of you to wait… What you seek shall be waiting for you in the rose garden.  
All due respect,  
He Who Waits At the End._

Her jaw clenched briefly and then she sucked in a deep breath crumpling the envelope in her hand, inwardly cursing her self for playing along. She needed to be more cautious. Saionji flew off on a whim that he suspected to be instructions from End of the World and it got him expelled. She wasn't nearly so foolish as to think anyone wanted her to win. She wasn't nearly so foolish as to believe winning meant anything... Still she could not reason why it was that she did not simply walk away from the game altogether. What it was that kept her in her spot on the student council?

She had no answers and very little patience to try and discover them.

Juri's dislike for the rose garden was almost a reflection for her dislike of the Rose Bride. It represented something in its romantic nature and flawlessness of beauty that was vexingly eternal, and ripe with passion, and yet there was something altogether false and deceitful about the entire place. In short, the place gave her a bad feeling, just as the Rose Bride gave her a bad feeling. Wonderful facades she had learned (and a little too well) were often just preludes to something that would, in the end, hurt one so terribly he or she could never recover.

Striding towards the vacant green house she had decided that if there was another note lying about for her to discover she would simply tear it to shreds and go back to her room. Curiosity or no, she had her limits, and she was not so easily led into a treasure hunt that might not lead to anywhere but her own shadow.

Juri prided herself on being able to know when to stop, when not to push, or pry. She knew when certain things were through, but she also knew that just because the body stops traveling the mind does not stop as well. The mind always knows there is always another mountain beyond the one just climbed, a spring just beyond the next desert, and even when the mind itself has said"It is time to stop, it is time to let go", that does not mean the mind actually listens.

Her mind was like that. She knew it too. She felt it with every breath in her body and every sigh she let escape her lips at the mere thought of the picture in her locket. She was a flux of opposing thoughts at all times. All at once she completely believed and was totally faithless in miracles, in love, in all that was eternal, and in that hope she knew that all people had. She was, as hard as it was to remember on a campus of few actual adults, just another sixteen-year-old girl (although highly intelligent and cunning for her age) searching for the very answers of the heart. And she was sure, be she fifteen or fifty that the answers were always going to be just beyond her line of actual sight.

The perfume of the roses lingered in every inch of the air around Ohtori, sweet and decayed, a scent of fallen petals, and even on most of the winding paths stray petals could be glimpsed recklessly scattered about or moving along caught up in a passing breeze. But the scent, however much it lingered on the campus, was never more notable than near the green house, the rose garden that was the pride of the ground keeping crew. The Rose Bride tended the roses. She was not there so late at night, but Juri almost felt a shadow of her ghost lingering within the glass walls of the greenhouse. She could almost hear the water pouring from the bride's watering can. She could not be sure how it was that she knew it, but the scent of the air was not just a general rose scent. It was a particular scent, that only one bloom produced, and those roses were the same color as her hair. They were a light auburn, orange to the untrained eye, which deepened to a darker copper as they aged.

Juri saw those roses through the glass of the greenhouse and wondered if she too would deepen in color as she aged.

She paced the short pathway up to the greenhouse door once and then decided to leave. Nothing was waiting for her. A queer sort of grin pressed itself onto her lips and she said aloud, but softly"Perhaps that is my heart's desire."

With a small shrug Juri began the short walk back to her dorm. She came to a small fork in the pathway and she could hear the soft rush of water spilling from one of the many fountains on the campus. In the opposite direction of the fountain the path wound towards a large orchard and beyond that the river. She stopped only briefly and then continued walking straight ahead. There was no reason to visit such places in the dark.

Walking along the thoughtless path she caught the glimmer of a shadow approaching and so recognizing its shape addressed it in the only manner in which she would allow as the softer features of a girl prince came into certain view, eyes the bright color of the sky on a clear day brilliantly and already welcoming the panther as she approached.

"So it's you then" she said it more as a statement of fact rather than a question. "Is the mouse having trouble sleeping again"

Robin blue eyes blinked back in uncertainty and then with dawning recollection replied" You mean Chu-Chu? Oh no he's sleeping fine tonight and um…He's actually a monkey."

"Is that so"

"Common mistake" the princely girl replied"it's the ears." She smiled and stretched out her arms continuing"I was actually having the trouble sleeping. Anthy is out and somehow I think I've gotten used to falling asleep to the sound of that strange shopping channel she always watches. You look all business tonight, late meeting"

Juri ignored the question and went straight to the glossed over subject of the Rose Bride's absence"Do you often let the Rose Bride go unattended"

"She does have a name you know, it's Anthy, and she can do whatever she wants. I mean it's nice to know she has a life."

"Hmm…That's a strange approach to things Tenjou I'll give you that."

Confusion again seemed to set in"What do you mean"

"Never mind, forget I said anything."

"Ooookay, I guess. So…"

The panther shrugged and continued walking towards her dorm.

"Hey Juri"

She spun on her heels to face the pink haired underclassmen, not quite amazed or offended (perhaps just slightly irritated) by the familiarity in tone with which she was called"Yes"

"I was wondering"

"We can talk over by the fountain."

Utena nodded and then asked warily"You aren't going to challenge me to a duel again…are you"

A thin, barely noticeable predatory grin slid across her lips. It was a silent chuckle at the memory; almost a private joke with the girl, only the girl simply missed the punch line. "I have no plans to duel with you any time soon Utena Tenjou."

The remark was taken at its sincerest and the pink haired under classman followed the fencing captain's lead down the slow winding path towards a familiar fountain.

There were many fountains on the Ohtori campus, an array of various lonesome and not so lonesome sections of the school that students could gather around to enjoy the weather, a nice chat, or even the solitude of a full moon. Juri knew where each fountain was, and while not all were her favorites, and while some held the most bitter of memories it could not be denied that she frequented the fountains that dotted the campus more regularly than any other of the other students. She was drawn to the sound of the water, sometimes the look of the fountain itself, and perhaps she was also drawn by memory, something cruel that had once stabbed her through her heart.

Reaching the particular fountain that the path eventually wound to the fencer remembered trying to take the ring off the young woman walking beside her, how desperate she became to tear the girl down and not because the girl was a duelist, but because the princely girl reminded her, in a way, of someone. Juri released a short breath that could have been a sigh, but was not taken as one, and sat not at the fountains edge, but on the ground at the base of the marble lion statue that guarded the fountain so well.

Utena took a seat finding her senior's action intriguing. She gripped at the sides of the fountain as silence drifted over them, with only the spill of the water splashing behind her to fill the void. She looked at how oddly at ease the sound seemed to make Juri and had to ask, and in her normal cheerful manner"You really like this place don't you"

The panther's eyes had been half shut (as if the very closeness to the water enchanted her to sleep, though she was very much awake) and they slowly opened at the sound of the girl's voice replying coolly"I do. The sound of the water relaxes me, helps me to sleep…sometimes. But you had wanted to ask me something, what was it"

"My duel with Touga I"

"You have already apologized, and too much I might add, for the state in which you returned my sword."

"But"

"And I already told you, Tenjou… Swords are replaceable."

"If you would let me finish I was just going to ask why you even lent it to me" Utena stated slightly exasperated by the interruptions. She grimaced and then began to stretch out her arms.

Juri watch the odd little habit and grinned"You stretch when you're nervous"

"No, I stretch because I play so many sports I need to stay limber."

The fencer shook her head"No, right now it's because you are nervous."

"If you say so, but you still haven't answered my question."

"I already told you" she stood from her spot"Swords are replaceable…"

"Yeah but"

"And people are not" her voice was a mix of warm caring and cold distain, her hazel eyes narrowed briefly before she continued"I really doubt Touga would ever do anything to intentionally cause you physical harm however, you Tenjou…have been known to rush into battle unprepared. It would be…unacceptable for you to be hurt… unnecessarily."

Juri moved over to the fountain and took a seat, not too close and not too far away from where Utena was sitting. She wanted to leave the conversation, because she knew from experience that speaking with the younger girl at length would only aggravate her already dour mood (the mood in thanks to a certain phone call she had received). But there she sat waiting for the princely girl to dare and ask another question, waiting for that unsurpassed brilliant shine of light that emanated from every naïve word and innocently stated point of exceeding optimism to spring forth and mock the very heart of her own deeply set cynicism.

Not very many years ago the panther vaguely recalled knowing what it was to be so absently unaware of the darker side of life. To be so full of hopes and wishes for silly things like, perhaps a kiss on the cheek from her best friend, a touch or embrace, and then to have that hope and wish turn to things that were no longer so light and unexplainable to any who had never felt the same.

It was all for nothing wishing, and hoping. Why then in her flux of emotions did she want to linger in such a strange conversation? Why was she so very prepared to be honest with this girl she knew nothing about? And it struck her suddenly that that was the reason. She knew nothing of Utena Tenjou, except what she had learned from the various duels, gossip about the campus, and her other single private encounter with the girl. And knowing nothing made it incongruously safe to reveal even the slightest of things, even if she fought the want to reveal anything at all there was something genuine the girl's bright blue eyes.

Utena smiled as she noted"I didn't think you cared."

"What has caring to do with any of it" Juri asked and a bit more sternly than she would have liked adding quickly"It was only logical."

"But you don't seem to like me much so I guess… I guess I just thought it was a bit of a miracle to receive help from anyone on the student council."

The single word"miracle", lingered around the fencer's ears, echoing in deep with the whispered rush of the water spilling from the fountain and it was a reminder of the aggravation she partially wanted to spare herself. It cut in deep and as the thought of it wound through her more thoroughly she could have sworn the echoes sounded petite and cruel. Hazel eyes half shut again and opened to wondering blue. She grinned and the bare sound of a huffed chuckle rose from her throat and sat in the air.

"Those I do not like, who are not on the Student Council, never seem to last very long around this campus. Rumors can be very cruel, but one should never doubt that there might be truth in a rumor."

Utena blinked in shocked response"I guess you like me."

"Just because I do not dislike you, it does not mean that I like you."

"Then I guess" the princely girl said chipperly"you tolerate me well enough."

"Hmmm… I wouldn't say that either."

"Well what would you say"

Juri considered the question and then moved in closer to the pink haired girl in a way that was very much similar to how she had moved towards Utena before that very first time and she grinned as she said"I would say you remind me very much of someone I want to forget."

Sensing the growing concern in the girl's eyes Juri slowly backed away, standing at the thought that perhaps her heart and her mind were not exactly seeing eye to eye. For her heart was always tormented with a pulse of lust that she did not know how to give into, recognizing it for what it was as she was surrounded daily by moderately attractive girls that she secretly longed to pull close to her and kiss (a replacement for the actual person she wanted). She grimaced uncomfortably aware of why she felt attracted to the princely girl, and why at the same time she hated her so very deeply for being who she was.

Utena remained seated and said continuing the conversation blissfully unaware that her companion was very much ready to depart"I guess I'll never understand."

With a breathy sigh of aggravation Juri moved over to the lion statue and leaned against it asking"What don't you understand"

"You…" she paused briefly as she considered the words she was about to say as if she were not sure she should say them at all, but she did eventually and with the barest of smiles"Whenever you're near me I'm never quite sure if you want to kill me or…" she blushed and whispered breaking eye contact immediately"kiss me."

Eyes shut she released a breath and question all at once, arms neatly folded over her chest, and a calm yet bemused grin attempting to spread itself wide across her face"And what would you prefer Miss Tenjou, to be killed or kissed"

"I"

"Don't know? That's quite alright I honestly don't know either."

"What"

"Whether I want to kiss you or kill you… Kill though; I somehow think is too harsh a word for it."

And there the confession sat in the wide space between them at a loss for what it should do next. Never was a confession so confused at where to turn for the statement could easily go in millions of directions which could result in millions of different things. The night, clear as it was, warm as it was, seemed made for confessions though. It was a night made for truth in a campus full of deceit and lies. So the confession for all it was worth went back to where it had originated from prodding the now regretful fencer for direction. Juri could have left things as they where and feign forgetfulness later, but an odd voice (that was clearly her own) raised at the back of her mind quoting the phone call she had received earlier that evening"For your heart's desire."

A question built again in her mind at the utterance and she mouthed it slowly without daring to speak it aware that the girl across from her probably was not watching and as it was released into the night she made a decision that she hoped she would be able to live with. And she decided quite frankly to share.

"When I was in junior high I thought I was in love and so loving I wanted to protect the person I loved from everything I really was. In the end that person left this school for someone else never really knowing how I felt… Was it right of me then to try so hard to protect that person"

Utena was visibly unclear as to whether the question was rhetorical so she answered it with her own opinion because it seemed the best thing to do"Maybe you didn't have to protect her."

"What"

She shrugged"I mean maybe you should have told her how you felt and trust that"

"No" there was growl at the back of her throat"you said 'her'. Why did you say that"

She grinned and quoted"'Rumors can be very cruel but that doesn't mean there isn't some truth to them.'"

The panther quirked an eyebrow"Interesting…"

Juri made way striding back towards the fountain, watching carefully as Utena rose to meet her half way. She could not think of what she wanted to do. She would have liked to have just said a pale "goodnight" but then there was that something about the evening, the very nearness of someone so very like what she desired standing close, and an odd feeling smothering her heart wrapping about her chest squeezing and sinking in slowly that perhaps she could get what it was she wanted. If it were hope or belief in miracles she could and would never say aloud, but whatever it was, it was enough to keep her standing, looking deep into bright blue eyes, inching ever closer to the girl and making her heart beat in ways she was unaware it could.

She brushed her hand down the girl's cheek and asked most seductively"What is it I should do Utena? Why are you here"

"Do what it is you feel…I'm here because I wanted to…see."

"And what is it you see"

"A broken heart…"

She lightly tugged the girl's chin up and moved in as close as she could, lips desperately close to ask one last question"Does a prince know how to heal a broken heart"

"No…but a prince can at least give that heart some…comfort"she whispered and then added"I'm not a prince yet Juri."

"Princes are never aware of what they truly are until they change and look back and see what it was they were, or were capable of becoming. I think you are more of prince than I would like to give you credit for."

And with that Juri brought her lips gently to meet those of the pink haired girl in a long but chaste kiss that raised butterflies in her stomach and made the pain of what she longed for catch like a barb in her throat. She wanted so much to be loved by that girl. She wanted so much to just carry her to her room and show exactly what it was she felt. But she merely deepened the kiss for fleeting moments breaking away so as not get carried away.

"I wish I had met you first Utena Tenjou" Juri said sadly"because I think if I had I could have my wish. But for this chain I wear, the memory of her, I could love you as you deserve. I can't though as I am…"

The princely girl blinked back in shock as the panther stepped away watching the loneliness grow on the older girl's face, the defeat of the moment and the wonder that something could begin and end so very swiftly. She backed away and sat down again releasing a slow breath and reconciling within her self the event that had just occurred. The fencer looked at the ground and stepped back towards her.

"When I see around campus"

Utena cut in quickly with a light smile"Don't worry about it Juri only the fountain knows."

"Of course."

She left then heart heavy and unsure. Venturing slowly in the darkness, dawn peeking up at the horizon, back to her room to wonder and worry over something she was not prepared for. She wanted to sleep, but could not. So she undressed and took a shower instead. For the first time in years Juri Arisugawa was prepared to miss classes and just sit in the darkness of her room, pray for sleep and perhaps another phone call to help her explain just what it was that had happened. The events seemed so very random and at the same time contrived.

The more she thought of it though the more fragmented her ponderings became, until she realized that sleep was slowly creeping over her and that fighting it would not be a good idea. And as she finally went to sleep (still partly damp from the shower) she dreamed of a time when she would have to fight the princely young girl again. She dreamt of loosing on purpose and giving up her stubborn want to prove miracles false. Because how could miracles be false if such a person as Utena Tenjou could make her confess and want to be honest about everything she tried to hide? How could the gift of that evening be forgotten even if it seemed distant and vague as her dreams grew deeper and she fell right into them?

His emerald green eyes narrowed as he entered the room and looked upon the motionless figure sitting on the tomb. He waited a moment in silence and then grinned almost happily as he asked"What was it you had hoped to accomplish by that incident"

The figure did not move or make a reply.

"The moment will be forgotten and you've wasted nothing but your own power in setting that scene in motion."

Still there was no movement and no reply came from the figure on the tomb.

"I will never understand you" he said harshly and then exited the room.

After a long moment of silence the figure on the tomb grinned slightly and while no one was around to hear it and it could not be said that the sound actually came from the figure itself, the word still hit the air with great command remaining true and untouchable. It could never be certain if the command was followed and obeyed but there was the hope that it was.

And the word was"Remember."

END.


End file.
